1872 $3 Indian Princess Three Dollar NGC AU55 (CAC)

Here’s a rare coin to add to your collection, one that has a truly beautiful design. The mintage is only 2,000. The Indian Princess gold pieces are very popular with numismatists. Please take a careful look at the photos of this example. NGC has graded 41 as AU55 with 116 finer. Collectors Universe gives this issue a price of $6,000.00 in AU55. In CAC, there are 8 in AU55 with 19 finer. CAC prices the 1872 $3 at $6,000.00 in AU55.

James B. Longacre, who crafted the beautiful Indian Princess motif upon our gold coinage. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

After many years of presenting Liberty heads derivative of classical Rome and Greece upon our coinage, here is one that is quintessentially American. Chief Engraver James B. Longacre was given the opportunity to craft his own vision of American Liberty, and he turned to the American Indian, the first people of our great land for inspiration. He wrote:

Why should we in seeking a type for the illustration or symbol of a nation that need not hold itself lower than the Roman virtue or the Science of Greece prefer the ... period of a remote and distant people, from which to draw an emblem of nationality: to the aboriginal period of our own land: especially when the latter presents us with a characteristic distinction not less interesting, and more peculiar than that which still casts its chain over the civilized portion of the older continent? Why not be American from the spring-head within our own domain? …